


Life Is Trying Me

by PoorUnfortunateSoul



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M, Musician Gabriel, Musician Genji, Musician Junkrat, Musician Widowmaker, Mutual Pining, Not so secret crush, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 23:08:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11884782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoorUnfortunateSoul/pseuds/PoorUnfortunateSoul
Summary: "I'm sorry," Gabriel says. "Who are you?""Jack," he says, "We, uh. We've talked before. Once."He doesn't seem to believe Jack.----Or, Jack and Ana once saved Gabriel from your typical high school bullies, but he doesn't seem to remember. Jack can't even get support for his helpless crush, because it seems that his friends have developed crushes of their own on Gabe's friends. Wonderful.





	Life Is Trying Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Just_Tooru_Trash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Tooru_Trash/gifts).



“You going to do something, or are you just gonna watch that kid get slaughtered?”

Jack looks over at his shorter friend. Ana rests against a random locker, left eyebrow raised in an accusatory manner.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do without getting slaughtered myself.”

Ana’s eyes leave Jack’s face, and flit to the side to watch two of the football players push a goth kid against the lockers threateningly.

“You could take both of them with your hands tied, and we both know it.”

“I didn’t mean them,” Jack stresses.

Ana tilts her head and glances back at Jack.

“You mean the goth kid? The one they’re currently getting ready to drag to the bathroom for a good old fashioned swirly?”

Jack rolls his eyes, “I’ve literally seen the guy take five of the baseball players at once. If he wanted to get away, he would.”

Ana nods slowly.

“Yes, because everyone likes getting their head shoved in a toilet,” Ana drawls, “Are you sure you aren’t hanging back because you have a crush on him, and are scared he’d get to watch them punch your pretty face in?”

Jack nearly chokes.

“What?”

Ana rolls her eyes at the slight whine in Jack’s voice.

“Oh, please,” she says, smirking, “We’ve been friends since our pre-k days, I know damn well that you have a type. Tall, dark, and emo over there fits it perfectly.”

“Emo and goth aren’t the same thing.”

Ana blinks. “What?”

“You called him Goth first, and then emo. They’re not the same thing. People will get pissed if you use them interchangeably like that.”

Ana scrunches her face in annoyance.

“You’re making excuses now,” she says, grabbing Jack’s shoulders, “Get the fuck in there.”

Jack tries to twist out of her grasp, but Ana is stronger. She shoves at Jack until he’s standing in between the football players and the goth kid. With all of his twisting, he somehow ends up right in the guy’s face.

Jack sucks in a whoosh of air when he meets the boy’s brown eyes. His face is almost perfectly symmetrical, and his good looks are emphasized by the black beanie he has over his messy hair.

He stares at Jack with disinterest.

Ana must get fed up with his brain freeze, because she twists Jack around so he’s facing the football players instead.  
They’re both muscular and tall enough to tower over Ana, but Jack barely has to tilt his head. The one who’d put their hands on the goth kid is blond, and his facial features seem a bit too close together. The other, that had mostly just been watching the whole thing happen, is a bit smaller than the other, and has a scar running from his left eyebrow to his hairline.

Jack doesn’t think he’s felt so intimidated in his life.

“Uh. Hey.”

Ana clicks her tongue in annoyance and turns to jab her fingers into the blond one’s chest.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she demands.

The blond just smirks down at her.

“We’re just showing Reyes here a good time.”

The other snickers, and Ana turns her glare on him. He flinches a bit more than the other had, but he probably thinks that with his friend, they can take an indifferent goth kid, a shaky Jack, and a tiny Ana. However, Jack knows what a pissed off Ana can do.

He hopes that the two boys in front of them have made peace with their God.

“Are you having a good time?” Ana asks, turning to look at the goth kid - Reyes?

“I am now,” a smooth voice says.

Jack can practically hear the smug grin on his face. Ana turns back around and tilts her head in a threatening manner.

“I think,” she says slowly, “that you two need to leave.”

“Yeah?” the blond asks. “And who’s gonna make me?”

Ana quirks an eyebrow.

“Us, obviously. Or are you that fucking dense?”

Reyes makes an amused noise from his spot behind Jack. The blond glares past Jack.

“The fuck you think you’re laughing at?” he demands.

“Careful, there,” Reyes says, “I have my own airhead to protect me now.”

He places a hand on Jack’s shoulder. Jack stiffens at the touch.

He’s touching me and I’m very gay, he thinks. Then, what Reyes says pushes past the panicking thoughts and finally clicks.

“What?” Jack asks, turning to look at Reyes.

He shrugs, as if to say sorry, but he doesn’t seem the least bit remorseful. Jack turns back to the football players, and Ana.

“Alright,” Ana sighs, “I’m tired of this testosterone show down.”

She presses her hand on the blond’s chest and shoves him so he’s not in Jack’s face anymore.

“This was a lot less fun than I thought it would be. Honestly, I thought I’d get to see Jack trip all over himself trying to defend the hot goth guy’s honor-“

“Ana,” Jack hisses.

“-but all I got was a typical, insecure high schooler picking on someone that they think they knock down to their size. It’s pathetic, you know? You targeted the cliche doom and gloom kid because you figured no one would try to help him. You picked the one person who looks like they don’t have friends.”

“Ouch,” Reyes mutters.

“You called me an airhead,” Jack says back, quietly. “Don’t expect me to feel bad for that one.”

“You picked the one person you thought you could cut in half, with minimum effort. Your insults and comebacks, all sound like they came from sort of teenage drama show on Disney channel,” Ana presses. She turns to look at the other boy and jams her finger in his chest like she’d done to the blond, “And you. You, fucking stood there, and watched it happen. The whole fucking time it was so, so easy to tell that you were uncomfortable with this whole thing. You obviously didn’t want to go along with the bullying, so there’s a small part of you that makes you a better human being than that jackass you call a friend, but you are the biggest fucking coward I have ever met in my life.”

Ana steps back and takes a deep breath.

Grabbing their faces in her palms and digging her fingernails in threateningly, Ana hisses, “Now, leave.”

Jack doesn’t think he’d ever seen anyone run away so fast before in his life.

“Damn,” Reyes says, “guess I’m in your debt now.”

Ana turns around to look at him. Jack does the same, but more hesitantly. Reyes is still close to Jack, so he takes a step back.

“Nah,” Ana says, effortlessly throwing her arm around his shoulders. “You called Jack an airhead; that’s enough for me.”

Jack glares at her.

“At least he’s not one of the bad ones,” Reyes muses.

“That’s not any better,” Jack says with a frown. “You know that, right?”

“I wasn’t trying to make it better, I was just being honest,” he says. “Speaking of being honest though, what is this I hear about you thinking I’m hot?”

Jack sputters incoherently and Ana and Reyes grin.

“You,” Ana says, punching his shoulder lightly, “I like you.”

“And I you,” Reyes, “I’m Gabriel, by the way.”

“Ana,” she says, looping her arm with Jack’s, “and the airhead is Jack.”

“I am right here,” Jack complains, “You can see me standing here.”

Gabriel chuckles and the sound makes Jack think he can forgive him.

“Of course I can. What would be the fun in teasing you when you can’t hear it, and make those cute offended faces of yours?”

He takes it back. Fuck this guy.

“We literally just saved you from a couple of bullies,” Jack points out. “Maybe you shouldn’t start acting like them.”

Gabriel leans back against the lockers and gives Jack a lazy once over with his eyes.

“If I remember correctly, Ana was the one who saved me. You were too dumbstruck by my good looks to do much of anything but stare. Besides, last time I checked, I’ve never decked you hard enough to bruise. Pretty sure the only thing I’ve bruised is your ego, pretty boy.”

Jack sputters again as Gabriel takes a step closer. He’s practically in his face now, and Jack’s brain basically short circuits. Ana pats his arm lightly.

“Alright, boys, enough flirting,” she says, ignoring the small noises of protest from both of them, “we better get to class.”

Gabriel sneers at the idea. “You two can go back to class; like Hell am I going to gym.”

“Amen,” Ana says, “Alright, so Jack and I will go. Later, tall, dark and emo.”

Jack and Ana all half-way down the hallway when they here Gabriel call, “I’m goth.”

“I fucking told you,” Jack says, and Ana yanks on his arm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Jack doesn’t see Gabriel much after that. He thinks he does, sometimes, from the corner of his eye, but when he turns to look, there’s no one there.

Ana is the most observant person Jack knows, and even she comments on how scarce Gabriel is able to make himself.

“You’d think he’d at least say thank you,” Ana had huffed.

“You’re the one that told him making fun of me was enough for you,” Jack had shot back.

Ana socked him in the gut before walking away with a smug look on her face.

Jack thought she’d let it go after a while, and he’d be left pining, but Ana was robbed of a new friend to make fun of Jack with. Of course she wouldn’t let it go.  
  
She finds out that he always skips gym, but somehow never gets caught. Jack doesn’t think he’s ever seen Ana so envious before in all the years they’d been friends. Ana figures that they never see him because he’s a sophomore, and they’re just freshmen. She also finds out that half of his grade doesn’t even know that he exists.

“I guess I hit the nail on the head when I said he doesn’t have friends,” Ana mused, but she didn’t sound happy about it.

Time goes by. Suddenly, they’re sophomore’s. Jack manages to grow a few inches. He reaches six feet and Ana pouts about it as much as she can. Jack joins every sports team that will have him, except for football. He never wants to be in the presence of Gabriel’s bullies ever again, if he can help it.

Ana races to the top of her classes, like the smart ass she is. She’s constantly switching places for the first of their class with the second, thanks to another student named Mei. They’re competitive with one another, but friendly enough to study together sometimes.

Their Junior year is much of the same, save for two extra freshmen that Ana takes under her wing. Their twosome suddenly doubles in size, with the addition of Lena Oxton and Jesse McCree.

Lena brings an excitable energy with her. She never sits still for long, and she’s a star on the track team. She talks Jack and Jesse into playing pranks on people with puppy dogs eyes. Ana clicks her tongue every time Jack falls for her watery brown eyes.  
  
Jesse brings a weird assortment of southern words and slang that makes Ana crinkle her nose. Lena tries to translate what Jesse’s saying sometimes, but when Jesse explains what he meant in terms Jack and Ana can understand, she’s almost always wrong.

Jesse moved up North after getting himself involved with a gang in his home town. They did a bit more than Lena’s silly pranks, and his mother finally opened her eyes to what was happening the night police showed up at her door. Up until then, she pretty much ignored Jesse’s existence. Now, she hardly lets him leave her sights. Jack, Ana, and Lena had to go through an intensive interview before it was deiced whether or not they could befriend him.

They’re both a bit more naive and immature than Jack and Ana. It was just a two year age difference, but it’s a large gap in high school terms, and Ana keeps Lena from seeing a senior that just wants someone inexperienced enough to toy with. Jack streets Jesse clear of the groups of boys that’ll lead him right back into the life he left.

In return, Lena teaches Ana how to do intricate make-up. They both join the school plays, and Jack thinks they have the best stage make-up of everyone else. He might be a bit biased; those are two of his best friends, after all, but he doesn’t think so. Jesse agrees.

Jesse teaches Jack how to shoot. They hang out after school and shoot pop cans off of Jesse’s fence. One time, Ana takes them all out without batting an eye, and it becomes a silent agreement to try to best her. They never seem to be able to.

Even with the addition of the other two, Jack and Ana never lose their connection. They still have friends night without the southern draw and excited energy.

Jack doesn’t know what he expected Jesse and Lena did in their free time when he and Ana weren’t there, but it wasn’t this.

“You know him?” Ana asks, leaning across the lunch table.

Lena swipes a few of Ana’s tatter tots when she’s not looking, and drops two on Jack’s tray. They high-five under the table.

“We both do,” Lena says, happily munching on a stolen tot.

Ana raises an eyebrow.

“What,” Jesse asks, “do you think you were the only people to see Lena’s lost puppy look on the first day? Shit, half the school took pity on her.”

“I wasn’t that bad,” Lena says, swallowing a mouthful of tots.

She cringes as it all slides down her throat, but shoves another mouthful in as soon as there’s room. Jack pinches his eyebrows together.

“Yes, you were,” he informs. He found her sniffling in the west wing, unsure of where her science class was. She cringes again. “Why the fuck are you like this?”

She smiles at him sweetly and grabs back one of the tots she’d given him. He places a hand on his chest in mock offense.

“Back on topic!” Ana demands, “You know Gabriel Reyes? Are you sure it’s the same one?”

Jesse blinks. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to answer that.”

“Right,” Ana says, “Okay, um. Pretty tall, brown eyes, dark hair, emo-“

“Goth,” Jack and Jesse both say.

Ana doesn’t even try to contain her eye roll.

“Same difference.”

“It’s really not,” Jack says, and Lena nods in agreement.

“Okay, are you going to argue with me, or are you going to figure out where your knight in goth armor is?”

“You got a thing for Reyes?” Jesse asks, raising an eyebrow.

Jack groans and slinks down in his seat. Lena swipes another tot and Jack just misses slapping her hand.

“Where the Hell is he?” Ana asks, “We spent all of freshmen year trying to befriend him after some bullies cornered him at his locker.”

“What do you mean, where is he? He’s in school like the rest of us. He’s just good at not being seen, is all,” Lena explains, and Jesse makes a noise of agreement.

“He blends in with the shadows, like the edge lord he is.”

Lena giggles and Jesse grins. Ana pinches her face together.

“How the Hell can it be that he’s hidden in plain sight from us for two years?”  
  
Jack agrees with the sentiment. He’d never admit it out loud, but Jack has subconsciously looked for Gabriel every day since the incident. He never saw him, whether it was him by himself, or him with his bullies. Maybe Ana scared them away for good, or maybe they got better at cornering him. Jack hopes it’s the former.

“Gabriel isn’t really… someone that wants to be seen,” Lena says, shrugging. “So he isn’t. He’s gotten good at it.”

Jack raises an eyebrow, and Ana seems to be able to read his mind.

“Doesn’t want to be seen? What the Hell does that mean?”

“Look,” Jesse says, “If you want to find him in a place where he absolutely stands out, why don’t you come to his show with us?”

“Show?” Jack asks, and Jesse nods.

He pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket, and hands it to Ana. She unfolds it and sets it on the table so Jack can see too.

“Shit, tall, dark and emo has a band.”

“Goth,” Jack murmurs, and Ana elbows his side hard enough that he’s sure it’ll bruise.

Ana scans over the flyer and nods thoughtfully.

“Well, we’re going. I can’t let you sit around and pine for him until he graduates.”

Jack groans again, “Why do you live to embarrass me? You’re supposed to be my friend.”

“I live to embarrass you because you’re my friend,” Ana says, grinning. Her face drops into a frown pretty quickly. “Who the fuck stole my tater-tots?”

Lena suddenly hops up from the table.  
  
She scoops up her tray and says, “Gotta go!”

She makes a beeline for the trashcans, and Ana slumps back.

“That little thief.”  
Jack pats her back sympathetically.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a one-shot for my sister that got Hella out of hand... Oops.


End file.
